2020/21 snooker season - what to expect

The world is going through the most difficult time of our generation. However, on August 16th around 300 people were able to finally gather around and were lucky enough to witness a piece of snooker history as Ronnie O'Sullivan beat Kyren Wilson for a sixth world title. 

Whether early or not to have a sport's crowd into an arena, snooker has been able to resume its normal services and the World Championship was a complete success despite the odd putbacks along the way. It was also not snooker's first tournament back after the pandemic - the ones prior to it even helped the game to have a proper World Championship atmosphere at the Crucible bubble. So, as we anxiously wait for the end of Covid-19, we go on as we can and even though everything was put into perspective in our lives, sport remains an important part of it as all of us try to distract our heads and have something to look forward to amidst all that.

Now let's do it, let's look forward to something as I try to uncover what we can expect from Snooker's new season:

Under no pressure:

Not that he still had anything to prove to anyone, but Ronnie O'Sullivan winning the World Championship in 2020 kind of ends all of the argument from people who said he didn't have it on him anymore. And after 28 years as a professional and still being World Champion, he doesn't even need to bother out there. Same for John Higgins and Mark Williams.

Ronnie's fellow class of '92 players  are still at the top and if someone's under pressure it's the players who should be dethroning them before having to cut a leg and an arm off these three.

Under a lot of pressure:

It may not be fair to come here and say that someone is underachieving when it's so difficult to keep at the top with so many great players around. But one particular player that comes to my mind is Mark Allen.

After Allen triumphed in the 2018 Masters I thought - and even wrote here - that a new star was born. And though I never expected him to become a prolific Triple Crown winner, I expected him to level up when compared to the games' big guns. In 2018 it looked like he had kept up to the challenge as he even made the UK Championship final that year and got to the quarterfinals of the World Championship. But the truth is that Mark Allen will kickstart his 2020/2021 season from the back of a first round loss at the Crucible by the hands of the then world number 90. And even though his current fifth position in the world ranking is his highest ever, Allen's had two conscutive first round exits at the Crucible now, and for a player from whom we expect big things for a long time now, 11 years since his only World Championship semifinal is a long time. I doubt if Allen will ever establish himself as a great of the game like Robertson, Ding, Selby and Trump have, but at the moment he's not there yet and it's up to him changing that.

Another player under a bit of pressure is Ali Carter, having missed the World Championship this year failing at qualifying stage. Ali Carter is a two times World Championship finalist and a great Crucible player who had made the quarterfinals in both 2018 and 2019, but is still battling to get back to the top 16 and this season he was only 31st in ranking points he made. He's 41 but Ronnie just proved what you can do at 44 if you keep up for the challenge.

Another player I would say is under a bit of pressure is Neil Robertson. One moment he was at the very top sharing titles with O'Sullivan and Selby, the other he was nowhere to be seen. He's still recovering from a couple of terrible seasons, but I find it surprising that at 38 he is yet to win a second world title - or even reach a second world final! If we look back to 2013, Robertson had completed his Triple Crown and Selby was still struggling to win anything other than the Masters, but now Selby is one of snooker's greatest players of all time and it's even not fair to compare his career with Neil's. However, I think Neil Robertson's expectations for the next season, given his performances this season, fit better in the next section below.

Threats:

Although Neil Robertson hasn't been a threat lately, his fans had some good signs last season. The Australian won the Champion of Champions beating the world number one Judd Trump who was at his absolute best at the moment then. Later, he won both the European Masters and the World Grand Prix and played good snooker at the Crucible before losing a great quarterfinal match against Mark Selby. If Neil gets back to his best he's a top 3 player and will be a contender anywhere.

As for Selby, not long ago we thought he was unbeatable at the Crucible. He never quite struggled but he didn't live up to that in 2018/19. Last season though, Selby took two trophies home and would've been a four times World Champion if it wasn't for him losing that semifinal from 16-14 up against Ronnie at the Crucible. Selby dominated the game winning 3 world titles in 4 years and spent 6 years as world number one. If he's back at his best, it wouldn't be a suprise to see him taking multiple triple crown tournaments in one season.

Another threat this season is Ding Junhui. After falling out of the top 16 in 2016 he's slowly getting back to form, maybe even too slowly. But the UK title last season, his first triple crown win since 2011, may have finally brought him back to the top. Also, yet again he was stopped by the eventual winner at the World Championship and although a world title is never a guarantee, it feels like he's missing something for Crucible glory that he'll find at any moment now.

Kyren Wilson is definitely another player that will be looking for huge things this season. The young player has now achieved the final of the Masters and World Championship but he doesn't want to be a nearly man. He has the ability and the will to achieve success soon, he just needs to start winning his finals but another major breakthrough is on his way for sure.

Ones to watch:

There are a couple I'm really looking forward to watch in 2020/21. One of them is once again Yan Bingtao. The 20 years-old is already well-known and a established force in the top 16. And he's doing it all against the odds because no one expects someone as young as him to win as much as he's winning on tour, and also he never looked like the best potter out of the three great Chinese prospects (Zhou Yuelong and Zhao Xintong), but his great tactical play as well as his scoring that keeps getting better, combined with his ability to play his best when the pressure is on, makes him one of the best players in the world already and destined for something great soon. I wonder if anyone will be able to beat this kid in ten years time but I'm looking forward to see him this season already as I'd bet for him to be top eight by the time it ends.

The other one is Kurt Maflin, who made his Crucible breakthrough beating Gilbert and John Higgins on his way to the quarterfinals. He played well against McGill in the quarters losing 10-13, but took some time to settle down and never quite recovered from a slow start but he'll certainly take a lot of confidence from that into the 2020/21 season. He's 37 so he's not particularly young in snooker terms, but he's still got some good years ahead of him to achieve what he already should've.

Well that's it, but I would like to mention Judd Trump. I don't think he fits into any of the above categories. At world number one and having won a record six ranking titles last season, you can't say he's under pressure. But you can't say he's under no pressure either - he lost to Nigel Bond in the last 32 stage of the UK Championship and to Shaun Murphy in round 1 of his Masters title defense campaign before losing to Kyren Wilson at the querterfinals of the World Championship. It may not be fair to put a lot of pressure on Judd Trump right now because he's the world number one and will likely remain at the top of the rankings until at least the end of this season, but we can't forget Trump took 7 years from his first triple crown title to his second, so even though he's a great and has completed snooker's triple crown, he has a record of struggle in the sport's major competitions that he doesn't want to live again.

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